Call for industry-wide drug-rape initiative

by John Harrington Campaigners are repeating their call for an industry-wide strategy to deal with drink spiking in venues, after separate tests over the festive period found traces of "drug rape" substances in as many as one in six drinks. Police tested 200 drinks at random for traces of GHB and Rohypnol ­ colourless, odourless substances used to make victims drowsy and susceptible to attack ­ at an un-named venue in Sutton, Surrey. Traces were found in six drinks, or 3% of the total. Meanwhile, the Scottish edition of the News of the World arranged for drinks to be tested for the group of substances which includes Rohypnol at four clubs north of the border ­ two in Edinburgh, one in Aberdeen and one in Glasgow. One in 12 (8%) of drinks contained traces, the newspaper reported. The figure in the Glasgow club was one in six, although they found no traces in drinks at the Aberdeen venue. The results mirror similar findings at a club in Chelmsford, Essex, last November, when 11 out of 200 drinks tested positive for unknown substances, thought to be GHB or Rohypnol. This incident led Graham Rhodes, chief executive of the Roofie Foundation, which investigates drug rape, to call for a national strategy to end spiking involving the industry, police and local authorities. He said the latest findings showed the need for a strategy was greater now than ever. "It's a call for the licensed trade to get its act cleared up," he said. Rhodes said cases of drink spiking were increasing each year. He estimated over 1,000 cases of drug rape were reported to the Roofie Foundation in 2003 ­ compared to just 87 in 1992. Test kit concern Do-it-yourself kits to test for drugs in drinks are now on sale to the public, but Graham Rhodes of the Roofie Foundation has cast doubt on their usefulness. The test card, from Essex-based drug-testing company Tetra Scene of Crime, contains a chemical which causes the card to turn blue when it comes in contact with Ketamine and GHB. The cards have been used by Essex Police and other forces. They are offered to the public for £6.50 per pack. But Rhodes claimed its value was undermined by the fact that the kit was not yet 100% accurate. "We want something that does the job," he said. He also criticised the kit for not being able to detect other drug-rape drugs such as Rohypnol.